Sunday, February 27, 2011

What do you get when you take a rich, buttery cookie and add a thick slab of delicious chocolate to it? Choco Leibniz!

I discovered these things during my freshman year of college, when my mom sent me a care package containing a box of chocolate cookies similar to Choco Leibniz. In retrospect, I'm almost certain she had given me a box of Petit Ecolier, but that doesn't matter; the point is, a few months after devouring the box of delicious cookies, I spotted some Choco Leibniz Noir (aka, the dark chocolate variety) at World Market and just had to buy them. This was the beginning of my addiction to Choco Leibniz, which reached alarming heights during my junior semester abroad in England. Choco Leibniz isn't exactly a rare item in the US, but it's far more prevalent in British grocery stores. Basically, I bought a couple boxes of these every time I went to the market in England (which was about once a week). Yum, yum, yum!

An old photo of Choco Leibniz Noir from my time in England. The box design has since changed.

So what IS Choco Leibniz? Here, just take a look at this delicious photo:

My mouth is watering already.

If you've ever had Petite Ecolier, then you've got a pretty good idea of what Choco Leibniz tastes like. Personally, I prefer Choco because the chocolate to cookie ratio is more even; with Petite Ecolier, I feel like the chocolate overwhelms the cookie part. But to each his own; both are excellent cookies. The only complaint I have is that Choco tends to be a bit pricey (about $3) for a box containing only nine cookies. As a result, I tend to hide the box so that no one else knows I have them. (Luckily, I'm not alone - one of my coworkers has admitted to doing the same thing with the milk chocolate kind.)

So where can you find these? I used to get them all the time at World Market, though I haven't been to one of those stores in a long time (the last time I went, my local World Market didn't have them. Sad face!) If you're in Louisville, Doll's Market always has boxes, although they sometimes run out of the dark chocolate ones. Sadly, I've never found Choco Leibniz in a chain grocery store like Kroger's or Jewel-Osco.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

About a month ago, I stopped by Target to pick up some things and decided to see if anything was on sale in the chocolate section. As I started to head down the candy aisle, however, I found my passage blocked by a rather large woman and some small children, so I decided to hit up the chocolate (which was located at the other end of the aisle) by circling around and going down the next aisle instead. Unfortunately, the aisle next to the candy just happened to be filled with all sorts of Valentine's Day candy. And that's when I found this:

The last time I was looking at Target's chocolate collection, I was curious about the creme brulee bar; but because I'm not a huge fan of creme brulee, I was hesitant about buying an entire creme brulee-flavored chocolate bar. So this mini collection turned out to be perfect in terms of sampling.

First, I tried the espresso truffle bar. I've already reviewed a few chocolate espresso bars, so it should come as no surprise to say that I greatly enjoyed this one too. I can't get enough of chocolate and espresso... Anyway, I will say that although this was a truffle bar, I still expected to find tiny bits of espresso beans on the inside, so I was a little disappointed when that turned out not to be the case. I should also point out that, in terms of chocolate quality, the dark chocolate used by Choxie doesn't quite compare to the richness of other bars, such as Chocolove. But for the price, it's not bad at all.

And then I cracked open the creme brulee bar. The description on the bar states that it is a "white chocolate truffle infused with vanilla, caramel, and a touch of toffee." White chocolate, caramel, and toffee? If it sounds like this bar contains 100% sugar, that's because it does. I thought my teeth were going to rot and fall off as soon as I took a bite of this stuff. Holy moly it was sweet! Way, way too sweet for my palate, which is used to dark chocolate.

But I persevered and ate the whole bar, though I still haven't come to a conclusion as to whether I liked it or not. I could only eat a square or two at a time, that's for sure. If you like white chocolate, I recommend checking this bar out. But if you're used to something a little less sweet, I'd stay away from the creme brulee.

BONUS REVIEW! A coworker of mine stopped at a Trader Joe's while on vacation a week or so ago (sadly, there are no Trader Joe's in Kentucky) and brought back a container of their dark chocolate covered espresso beans. Apparently another coworker of mine informed her that I have this lovely blog, so she gave me a handful to consume and review.

Yum. That's all I have to say. I could not stop eating these things! Buy them if you're near a Trader Joe's.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Chances are, "chocolate" isn't the first thing you think of when Walgreens comes to mind... unless, of course, you're me. As I discovered in college, when I lived in close proximity to a Walgreens for four years, the pharmacy has a pretty baller chocolate selection. Godiva, Lindt, Ghirardelli... it's all there - and there's a lot of variety within those brands, too. The only thing Walgreens lacks is organic chocolate, but the average person walking into the store probably isn't looking for organic chocolate anyway.

Earlier this week I was at Walgreens for the sole purpose of getting some chocolate, and I saw that the store was having a sale on Godiva Gems: two bags for $6.

Okay, I'll be honest. This isn't much of a sale. I can get two bars of Ghirardelli or Lindt for less than $6. But it was a sale, so of course I had to partake in it.

First, I sank my teeth into the dark chocolate truffles. Although they are good, they lack the creaminess that other truffles (especially Lindt truffles) have on the inside. The chocolate shell of the truffle was absolutely exquisite, but the actual truffle part I found to be a little too grainy for my taste buds; that is to say, I felt like I could taste tiny bits of sugar in the truffle. I wish the inside was a just a tiny bit smoother. But if you're looking for some dark chocolate truffles that are smaller in size than the Lindt ones, you should definitely check these out. The relatively small size was a plus for me, since they pack quite a punch.

Approximate size of the truffles. These strawberry ones weren't sold at my local Walgreens :(

Even before I'd finished the dark chocolate truffles, I was filled with the urge to try the other kind I purchased:

I expected the caramel filling to be somewhat gooey, similar to how the Ghirardelli caramel squares are. Wrong! The caramel inside was not exactly hard per se, but it was much firmer than expected. And I loved it that way! The solid caramel with dark chocolate shell was heaven to my tastebuds. I think I ate about three of these gems in under five minutes. The aforementioned Ghirardelli dark chocolate with caramel squares is one of my favorite chocolate products ever, but these gems give them a run for their money.